During his four years at Wisconsin, Ron Dayne’s No. 33 jersey ran past, through and over opposing players, as the bruising tailback amassed an NCAA-record 6,397 yards and won the 1999 Heisman Trophy.

Since Dayne played his last down in the 2000 Rose Bowl, the number has been more or less unofficially retired — no Wisconsin player has worn it since. That unofficial designation will be made permanent Nov. 10, when UW will officially retire No. 33 in a ceremony during the Wisconsin-Michigan game.

“You all know what he did and what he brought to our program, and his accomplishments are well-documented,” UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez said Monday. “I’ll be very proud to [retire his number] officially.”

An extremely highly regarded recruit coming out of high school in Overbrook (N.J.) High School, Dayne chose to attend Wisconsin because Alvarez — then the Wisconsin head football coach — was one of the only coaches in the country to recruit the big runner to play tailback.

“He was very unique in his body size; he was really kind of fullback built, but had tremendous speed and ran what we were running — the zone play — so well and had tremendous breakaway speed,” Alvarez said.

After four years of battering Big Ten competition and winning three bowl game MVP awards — including two while playing in the Rose Bowl — Dayne essentially became the face of the Wisconsin football program, according to Alvarez.

“I think he, more than anything else, identified our program,” Alvarez said. “[When] you talk to people around the country today and you mention Wisconsin football, they think of a bruising running game, big strong offensive linemen with a big running back.”

Dayne’s name and number have graced the Camp Randall Stadium facade since he set the all-time career rushing record during his final home game in 1999. Since then, Alvarez said, his number has been retired, if only in practice.

Currently a member of the NFL’s Houston Texans, Dayne will be able to attend the ceremony because the Nov. 10 home game is scheduled over the Texans’ bye week.

Turning over a new leaf

One of the main concerns about the Wisconsin defense so far this season has been its relative inability to create turnovers.

Through eight games, the Badgers have forced opponents into only seven giveaways. Outside of safety Shane Carter — who alone has accounted for four turnovers on interceptions — the picture is even bleaker.

Carter had two interceptions Saturday against Northern Illinois, and UW head coach Bret Bielema believes that Carter’s performance and improved tackling, which began two weeks ago, could signal a shifting of the tide.

“Takeaways happen when you have more people to the football, when you swarm and when you are able to play with a little bit more higher energy,” Bielema said.

“A lot of times turnovers are the direct result of big hits,” he continued. “And those things began to happen a little bit in the Penn State game, not to the level that we’d like, and obviously happened a lot more this past Saturday.”

Dealing with tragedy

A lot was made at the beginning of the season as to how Indiana would handle itself following the death of head coach Terry Hoeppner. Hoeppner was on a leave of absence when he passed away from brain cancer over the summer.

Bielema said that he, personally, only had one instance even remotely similar to that during his years in football.

“The only thing that was similar to that [was] going into my senior year (playing at Iowa), we lost an offensive line coach that was fairly close to everybody on the team,” Bielema said.

Fortunately, another instance was avoided this season when UW wide receivers coach Henry Mason was able to recover following a spinal cord condition. Mason is currently on leave from the team and DelVaughn Alexander has taken over his coaching duties on an interim basis.

“This year, when I lost Henry Mason basically a month before we started camp … I felt it was very important for us to get a guy into that position that our players would bond with pretty quickly, and I think that’s happened with DelVaughn,” Bielema said.